Topics regarding design and game theory.
Matt Jackson (of lapsus calumni) asked on Google+ about the minimum required character traits for a light-weight RPG. Light enough that it doesn’t have classes. Taking some of the ideas there, I think the following might be workable. First, reduce things to their very basics and abstract them. What do …
When building a scenario or other campaign entity, I like to graphs to show in an abstract way how various things link to each other. Sometimes I like to build purely organically, constructing these graphs as I think of the entities, but lately I’ve been taking a page from the …
I’ve done a lot of writing this month, I figured I’d knock off a little map quickly in GIMP and call it a day. This one is a little experimental. For determining landforms I usually use a technique where I draw the general shape, then overlay some noise and select …
Ever since I discovered (i.e. “learned about from someone else”, I didn’t invent them or anything) fractals I’ve been mildly fascinated by them. This is not an uncommon thing. A fractal can be defined, in part (I’m not going to go into the full mathematical definition), as a “self-similar pattern”, …
There are many ways to present campaign maps. Depending on the purpose, different map styles can be more appropriate than others. Seekers of Lore is going to be very much a sandbox campaign, with a great deal of exploration. There are two primary map styles I am considering. Artistic Maps …
My colleague and collaborator GreyKnight told me this morning that he is building a megadungeon. I thought I’d give him a bit of a nudge, and ran a little random generator I’m working on to build a set of 500 Old School styled adventuring sites. The tables originated with Matt …
When building setting elements to be shared with others, or at least significant elements of such a world, do you think it is more useful if they are specific and ready for use, but perhaps harder to adapt, or more generic and easily adapted? For instance, if I were to …
My research process for Echelon usually involves pulling as much related material together as possible so I have it all in one place. That way I can work with a single document — print it out, scribble in margins, and so on, rather than packing around several books and something …
It may seem odd that I say “reconsidering hex crawls”, given that I’ve never really discussed them here, but that’s what I’m doing. As with megadungeons, hex crawls are something that never really appealed to me. The ones I’ve seen are generally presented as list of hexes and the things …
Since I apparently don’t have enough to do, I’ve been considering another project, possibly to be packaged for sale on OBS or Lulu or something. No, I haven’t forgotten the interest people have expressed in my doing this for the megadungeon, and in fact they are related. I’ve been asked …